Predator and Prey: Decorum Premiere New Video ‘High Order’

March 16, 2016

Decorum, a three-piece postpunk outfit from Brooklyn, want to turn you into a slasher-movie villain.

That’s the vibe given in the music video for “High Order,” the first single off their debut EP, VAIL. It’s a moody, minimalist short film: A figure clad in black runs through the woods in the middle of the night. Filmed by Adrian Letechipia in Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, the camera casts the viewer into the role of predator as it quakes and trembles, Blair Witch–style, always on the heels of the prey.

The track itself opens with a bassline that sounds ripped from a Bauhaus or early Sonic Youth record — Decorum eschew guitar in favor of two bassists — before the vocals come in, a call-and-response between a gothic male melody and an unsettling chanting female voice.

The voices belong to bassists Leif and Sable, who, along with drummer Shay, make up Decorum. (The members prefer to be known mononymously, like Chucky or Leatherface.) VAIL, which is out on April 15 and available for pre-order through Mirror Universe Tapes, is a natural extension of last year’s demo Centre, a two-song effort that quickly wormed its way into the hearts of those who are still hanging on to their bootleg Warsaw demos from high school.

The horror motif that suffuses Decorum’s aesthetic was a conscious decision on the part of the band. “The idea [behind the ‘High Order’ music video] was to take a moment from olden slasher flicks and focus on one continuous action,” says Sable. When asked about her favorite scary movies, however, she skews more modern, listing Cabin in the Woods, Drag Me to Hell, and the remake of The Evil Dead as examples. They’re telling choices: contemporary, self-aware flicks that owe a debt to their Eighties predecessors while existing on their own terms. Just like Decorum.